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Wednesday, 15 July 2015

The case for Humber Devolution

Firstly apologies that this post
largely isn’t about transport, however this is a very important topic for the
Humber region, that I feel strongly about, and this blog is probably one of the
best ways I can publically discuss my personal thoughts it. Devolution to the English regions
is happening, and in some form or another seems certain to cover all parts of
England during the current parliament. The government are insisting on directly
elected mayors, and while I think it is a shame local areas do not have the
option to propose alternatives forms of devolution, if an elected mayor is necessary
to get devolution, then one needs to be accepted in my opinion. That leads to a
debate over the geographic scope of individual devolution deals, and the policy
areas/responsibilities to be devolved. I believe it is essential that the
Humber region works together as one area in securing a devolution deal,
preferably on it’s own, but if it necessary with neighbouring areas too. One potential area for devolution
is skills. There is already extensive cross-Humber co-operation through the
Local Enterprise Partnership, with the Humber Skills Pledge, Humber-wide
springboard programme and Humber Apprentice Support Service, as well as the new
Humber UTC and a potential National College for Wind Energy. This is all at
risk of being diminished if skills policy in the Humber region is split across
two different devolution deals and two different mayors. Policy divergence
would be a risk, and to avoid this there would need to be extensive
co-ordination to ensure policy alignment which in turn could detract from
implementation. One Humber wide elected mayor and associated authority could
develop and implement one policy without needing to worry about these risks.Some of the skills work in the
Humber region has been built around the emerging development of the off-shore
wind industry in the region. This is a massive shared opportunity for the North
and South Banks, with plenty of investments and jobs for all areas. To fully
maximise this, the Humber needs to be fully united and co-ordinated across
marketing the area, facilitating inward investment and ensuring the provision
of a skilled workforce. Working across two different authorities with two different
mayors would make this a lot harder. It’s also worth noting that both
Lincolnshire and other parts of Yorkshire (potential alternative partners for
the south and north banks of the Humber respectively) have far less potential
to directly benefit from offshore energy given their lack of ports and docks.
It very much is a shared opportunity for the Humber.Health services are another
potential area for devolution. The current organisation of health services on
the South Bank largely looks to Yorkshire as a partner, whether through the
Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Trust or the provision of
specialist services at Hull Royal Infirmary, Castle Hill Hospital, Sheffield
Children’s Hospital, Pinderfields Burns Unit or in Leeds. Hull and East
Yorkshire also look to South and West Yorkshire for very specialist care. It
therefore would be most logical to partner at least within the Humber region
from a healthcare devolution perspective. Also, I think that Lincolnshire
generally looks to Nottingham and the East Midlands as a partner when required,
a clear area of difference between North and North East Lincolnshire on
one-hand, and Lincolnshire on the other. Any potential Greater Lincolnshire
devolution deal would have to overcome this.Transferring the role of police
and crime commissioner (PCC) into a directly elected mayor has been suggested, a
sensible suggestion in my opinion. However I can only see that this could work
if a directly elected mayor’s boundaries matched that of the police. This
leaves three options; a Humber-wide mayor replacing the Humberside PCC,
retaining the Humberside PCC due to non-matching mayoral boundaries, or a
costly and complex reorganisation of policing to match mayoral boundaries. Any
reorganisation costs and complexity would be exacerbated by the increasing
integration within Humberside Police and the recently introduced ‘one-force’
model replacing the traditional geographic based divisional structure. From a
policing perspective I see the only sensible option as being a Humber-wide
mayor.Even in the area of transport,
despite the estuary, there are common links between the North and South banks
of the Humber. The most obvious link is the Humber Bridge, and any elected
mayor and associated authority could potentially incorporate the Humber Bridge
Board bringing the potential of administrative savings. Humberside Airport is a
shared asset for the Humber region; a Yorkshire elected mayor and associated authority
or even a Hull/East Yorkshire/parts of North Yorkshire elected mayor and
associated authority maybe reluctant to support an ‘out of area’ airport while
a Greater Lincolnshire elected mayor and associated authority may place more
emphasis on links to East Midlands Airport given that for much of the
Lincolnshire County Council area, Humberside is not the local airport. It would
be far more preferable for one Humber-wide elected mayor and associated
authority to be supporting the Humber region’s local airport. There are also
shared interests across the North and South banks of the Humber covering the
East Coast Mainline, A1 and M1, shipping/ports and some local bus services.There could be potential for a
directly elected mayor and associated authority to take over the role of the
Humberside Fire Authority, however as with the police, this would only likely
work if the directly elected mayor covered the entire Humber region. Like with
Humberside Police, resources are shared across both banks of the Humber and any
reorganisation would be complex and costly, yet without Humber region-wide
devolution, the only other option would be to retain the Humberside Fire Authority
as a standalone body.While the government has stated
that the South Bank will be part of the Northern Powerhouse initiative (and
therefore I presume Transport for the North once it is formally established), south
bank influence within the initiative would be limited should a Greater
Lincolnshire mayor be established covering North and North East Lincolnshire as
well as Lincolnshire. Presumably Lincolnshire would not be involved in the
Northern Powerhouse – it would be very difficult to call Stamford, Long Sutton or
even Skegness part of the North of England – so the result would be a mayor and
associated authority ‘half-in, half-out’ and potentially therefore having
limited influence over key policy. On the other hand a united Humber directly elected
mayor and associated authority would be more likely to have greater influence.

It’s interesting how the
Sheffield City Region has ignored traditional boundaries to reflect modern
realities and local geography in the formation of it’s combined authority,
including parts of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire as well as South Yorkshire.
This is the type of working needed in the Humber region. Traditional
boundaries are just that, traditional, historic, to be recognised in ceremonial
counties. They do not reflect modern-day economic needs and sensible
administrative boundaries. Not even the great Humber estuary presents a natural
boundary any more, as the Humber Bridge and it’s reduced tolls have facilitated
more integration between the North and South banks than ever before.

On the south bank I feel, as a
Barton resident, that Barton at least is increasingly part of Greater Hull.
There are residents moving to Barton from the North Bank to take advantage of
cheaper house prices, and the reduced Humber Bridge tolls have made it far more
affordable to travel to Hull and East Yorkshire for shopping and leisure. From
a transport perspective, Barton had one bus per hour to Hull Monday to Saturday
daytimes at the start of 2009; since 2010 it has had three per hour. Stagecoach
(and EYMS) have invested in the Humber Fastcat and to a lesser extent Humber
Flyer cross-Humber bus services. This tells a story of increasing
inter-connectivity between the North and South banks of the Humber.

How successful it is remains to
be seen, but looking at announcements from Hull City Council such as it’s City
Plan, cruise terminal plans and concert venue plans, there is no shortage of
vision for growth. Now is not the time for the South Bank to turn it’s back on
the North Bank, weaken ties, marginalise existing co-operation or increase
administrative hurdles to cross-Humber working. Now is the time for increased
working together, so that the South Bank can influence these plans and capture
the benefits as best as possible.

There may be times when a Greater
Lincolnshire or Yorkshire approach is most appropriate, and one option could be
to set up a formal leadership committee or similar to co-ordinate when
appropriate. However I firmly believe these occasions are far less than when
cross-Humber co-operation is the most sensible approach to take.

Finally I am struck that even
when key figures in the debate are advocating other options than a Humber wide devolution
deal, they still emphasise the need to work together across the Humber on
business and economy issues. To me this shows that the Humber is a functional
economic area with shared interests. Why is it being seriously contemplated
ignoring this in the devolution debate? Why is the Humber region at risk of
becoming the least united it has been since 1974? There are shared interests in
a variety of areas; this is the time to boldly make the case for the Humber
region in administrative and economic terms.

Please leave your comments – and even
better contact your local politicians to let them know your views, whatever
they may be. Whatever your view,
the end result will not have legitimacy if the public are not involved.

1 comment:

I too think the Humberside area is the best for devolution. Not least as the PCC would be replaced making it very cost effective.Grimsby has more connections to Svunthorpe, Barton and Hull than Lincoln in so many, many ways.Also alot of infrastructure was built when Humberside had a council with little since later being replace by the unitaries authorities.

I do dislike the governent's plan though. I feel all parts of the UK deserve an assembley with equal power. Currently Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and London have devolved assembleys. Why not the other regions like Yorkshire and Humberside?That would be best in my opinion.

Some irrational people will also act crazy if Humberside is used instead of Yorkshire or Lincolnshire as if the name matters much, and often forgetting that in the past at varying time Lindsey, Hullshire, Grimsby County Borough were all counties and that borders did change before. Remember all the crimimal damage on road signs saying Welcome to Humberside, some people are just mean for the sake of it.

But no matter which way it's done for joining both banks it's "United We Flourish" as the county motto said.